From "The West's Awake" to Ireland Woke: A Sociological Reflection on Irish Modernity.

This is the decade of commemoration in Ireland marking the 1916 Rising, the transformative General Election of 1918, the War of Independence 1919-21 and the Civil War 1922-23. The commemorative process has engaged the nation in looking back and looking forward, evaluating both our past and our present. It is timely to reflect on where Ireland has ended up, 100 years after the publication of the Proclamation, almost 70 years since the country became a Republic in 1949, 45 years after we joined the European Union and 10 years after the economic crash. In this talk, Professor Corcoran will provide some sociological reflections on Irish modernity focusing in particular on key transformations that have occurred in everyday life, as well as noting important continuities with the past. The nature of Irish civil society will be explored particularly in the context of the 2015 Marriage Equality Referendum and the 2018 Eight Amendment campaigns.